WV Prevention Research Center receives continued funding from CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded the WV PRC $734,000 to support the fourth year of their five-year funding period. The award funds the WVPRC’s research infrastructure which provides research support for a multidisciplinary team of faculty with expertise in tobacco and other substance use, physical activity and nutrition, practice-based research, youth resilience, multi-behavioral interventions, and mobile health technologies.

The funding also supports a five-year childhood physical activity project called “Activate!”. For the past three years, the WVPRC has partnered with Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, the WV Department of Education, and WV elementary schools to develop and test strategies for both the classroom and family-based settings that facilitate physical activity. Investigators will explore the relationships among physical activity, academic performance, and health. Study findings will inform future community-engaged initiatives that increase the health and wellbeing of school children and their families.

Over the course of the next year, the WVPRC is expanding their efforts to adolescent health with an emphasis on social and emotional health while continuing to work closely with state and community partners to address health disparities in West Virginia.

“The Center’s long-standing partnerships with the WV Bureau for Public Health, WV Department of Education, and other state and local partners allows the WVPRC to expand our community-engaged research priorities to address the state’s most critical health disparities,” said WVPRC Director Dr. Geri Dino.

Jessica Wright of the WV Bureau for Public Health, Division of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease appreciates being able to partner with WVPRC.

“Working with the WV Prevention Research Center has provided valuable consultation and expertise in leadership, change management, evaluation, and so much more. Being a public health professional where we all are doing more with less – innovation and enthusiasm are key to making it through these trying times,” said Wright.

The CDC funds Prevention Research Centers (PRC) across the country to partner with communities and to develop, evaluate, and implement feasible, practical strategies to prevent and control chronic diseases. The CDC considers the PRCs as leaders in translating research results into policy and public health practice. The WVPRC is one of only 26 such centers nationwide.

The Prevention Research Center at West Virginia University is a member of the Prevention Research Centers Program, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cooperative agreement number IU48DP005004-001. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. For more information about CDC and its programs, visit http://www.cdc.gov/.

CONTACT: Liesl Kammer, PR Specialist, West Virginia Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health, West Virginia University, 304-680-3636